Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment Commissioner Tshediso Matona has said it is necessary to “dispel the myth” that black industrialist multimillionaires or billionaires should not exist because of the large and growing gap between the wealthy and the indigent.
Speaking as part of a panel at the Black Industrialists and Exporters Conference, in Sandton, on March 20, he said that, if black industrialists become billionaires out of the enterprises they invested time, money and effort into growing, then it should be applauded rather than decried.
He noted that more wealthy black South Africans meant more employment opportunities and was a signifier of a growing economy.
“We need more billionaires. We like billionaires. Must we all remain small? I think it's something we must resist as part of our discourse going forward,” Matona said.
The key, as was noted by several other panel members, was that successful black industrialists needed to leverage their success to create jobs and uplift the economy so that others might follow in their wake.
“If you emerge as a leading industrialist, you have to open up to your fellow citizens. You're also elevating them from where they were. It's got to have a cascading impact,” Absa CIB managing executive: public sector Steve Seaka said.